


Trials and Tribulations

by PhantomEngineer



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Lawyers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-30
Updated: 2018-05-30
Packaged: 2019-05-16 03:07:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14803182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhantomEngineer/pseuds/PhantomEngineer
Summary: Severus is a lawyer. Harry is his assistant. Severus was hoping for a client. Having his irritating assistant accused of murder was not exactly what he had in mind. He's not entirely certain why Harry is his assistant, to be quite honest. Or why he feels so compelled to defend him against all the odds.Somewhat Ace Attorney-esque.





	Trials and Tribulations

**Author's Note:**

> For Sophie. Whether or not this is what you wanted remains to be seen.

Severus glared at Harry. He wondered, as he had from the very moment he had said yes, why on earth he had agreed to make the young man his assistant. Harry knew nothing about the law. In fact, as far as Severus could tell, Harry knew nothing about anything. Harry looked faintly pitiful, giving him a beseeching look with those enchanting emerald green eyes. Severus sighed. He knew why he had agreed, he just wouldn’t admit it. Sentimentality. It was the kind of thing that would ruin his reputation. Not that he had much of a reputation. He was desperately trying to build one. He was hoping to be known as a fearsome lawyer, scarily capable and talented beyond all imagination. He also hoped to be paid, as he was always very conscious of the amount of money in his bank account compared to the cost of his rent. He had already accepting that being able to afford to eat was asking too much of reality, and that therefore he would likely starve to death before he managed to get very far in his career.

He could see now that he wasn’t going to gain that fearsome reputation, just as clearly as he could see the smudge on Harry’s glasses. He wondered if he should inform Harry, genuinely concerned that he might not have noticed and would find it revolutionary to realise that the world was actually clearer than he was currently seeing.

The up side, Severus had to admit, was that he had a case. The down side was the case. When Harry had cheerfully promised to help find clients, Severus had not expected that Harry would be accused of murder. He sighed. Capitulation really was the best option. He already knew the extent of the evidence, which was damning. Harry had claimed to have found a potential client, though given his vague at best awareness of what Severus actually did Severus wasn’t convinced that the client would be any good. Harry had then been found by the police, covered in blood standing over the body of Sirius Black, the man that was supposed to be Severus’s potential client. Severus supposed that it was true, he did now have a client. He just wasn’t happy with his client being his annoying assistant. He didn’t want to think too hard about why he was so unhappy about it when he found Harry to be so irritating. That seemed like it was something emotional, and he didn’t have time for that.

Even had the evidence not been wholly against Harry, the mere fact that the prosecutor was Voldemort meant that Severus stood no chance. Voldemort wasn’t actually Voldemort’s real name, but those who knew it rarely dared speak it. Few even dared call him Voldemort. He was known as the Dark Lord of the Courts. Severus knew that he was destined to be just another lawyer chewed up and spat out by the unholy terror that was Voldemort. He wanted, more than anything, to just walk away. To wash his hands of the entire thing. But once again, sentimentality brought on by those damn green eyes made him stay. He sighed, accepted his fate. He couldn’t believe the young man in front of him was capable of murder. 

He regretted it once he stood in court, of course. Harry grinned encouragingly from the defendant’s box, and Severus briefly considered what the outcome would be if he throttled his client before the opening statement. As it was, his opening statement was mostly a creative rewording of: “Please?”

Across from him was Voldemort, the man who formed the basis of the nightmares of most lawyers. He had never, as far as Severus was aware, lost a case. Mostly he reduced his opponents to a gibbering mess. Generally, the client was found guilty and the lawyer retired. The last person who had tried to defend someone against Voldemort had lost the case in 43 minutes and had consequently retired to become a goat farmer. Severus was already considering alternative careers.

“Between you and him,” Harry said, far too cheerfully for someone on trial for murder, “You’ve got one normal sized nose.”

Severus wondered once again why he was bothering to defend Harry. He reached a hand to his admittedly rather large nose, feeling offended. It was, as far as he was concerned, an entirely unnecessary comment for Harry to make. He was also somewhat disturbed by the fact that Harry seemed far more optimistic and relaxed than he was. He didn’t want Harry to be screaming in terror, as that would be both annoying and distracting, but some kind of concern over the fact that he was probably going to be spending the rest of his life behind bars would make Severus feel less like he was overreacting to the situation. Anyone would have thought it was Severus on trial, given their respective demeanours.

Harry was right, to an extent. No one had ever dared ask why it was that Voldemort appeared to have no nose. It could have been some awful accident, it could have been an unfortunate result of plastic surgery. He could have been born like that. The important thing was that he was terrifying. You did not ask terrifying men why they didn’t have noses. Severus briefly considered gagging Harry, as he had a dreadful suspicion that Harry was exactly the kind of person who would ask. As far as he could tell, Harry lacked any sense of self-preservation. He also lacked the killing instinct, which was why Severus was standing there, ready to protect him from Voldemort who he rather suspected did. Maybe he had traded his nose for it. 

Luckily, Harry kept quiet. Dumbledore, an old man who was mostly beard, presided over them as the judge. Severus did feel a slight glimmer of relief at that. He was one of the few judges who could stand up to Voldemort, which gave Severus a slight chance. Once Voldemort had finished his opening statement, he returned to his original musings to whether or not he would make a good cancan dancer. He had the legs for it, and he would be far far away from Voldemort.

Resolutely ignoring Harry, Severus focused all of his energy on his opponent’s argument. Slowly but surely, he chipped away at the accusations. Harry had a perfectly good reason for being in Sirius’s office. If he was dim enough to be found standing over the body then he would be too dim to wipe his fingerprints from the murder weapon. Harry took offence at Severus’s belief in his dimness being used as a point of defence, but the court accepted it. There was blatantly no motive (unless Harry was really so desperate to provide Severus with a client that he was willing to commit murder so Severus could defend him, but Severus had always hoped to get innocent clients rather than insane ones who would do something like that). As Severus kept his cool and did his best, despite all the odds, he felt the strange sensation of Voldemort becoming more and more frustrated. Harry gazed at him like he was some kind of superhero, which made Severus briefly check that he had got the order of his trousers and pants the right way round. He had been very nervous when he got dressed that morning. Luckily, he was dressed appropriately and it was just that he was behaving heroically that was producing that reaction.

Slowly, he found that he was not just countering Voldemort’s accusations, but actively proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that Harry was genuinely innocent. Dumbledore looked impressed, though it was hard to tell with the sheer amount of beard. Severus could well have been imagining it. The tide really started to turn when he began to prod away at the issue of who, other than Harry, could have possibly been behind the murder. He hadn’t expected to manage to get that far. His best case scenario when he had started the case had been managing to somehow prove Harry’s innocence (sadly, telling everyone to just look at those green eyes was not sufficient proof and therefore not usable in a court of law). He had not expected that he would accidentally accuse Voldemort of orchestrating the entire plot, even if he had not struck the killing blow himself. But he had logically followed all the evidence, and once the false assumption that Harry was guilty was removed that was the only possible explanation.

After that, there was very little except for Dumbledore to pass the verdict of innocent. Severus nearly collapsed with relief, which was probably not very professional. Harry hissed at Voldemort, which was probably not a great demonstration of his sanity. Voldemort hissed back, which was just plain creepy, before being taken away for further questioning. 

He really shouldn’t have been surprised when Harry made the seismic shift from living with him to living with him, a change that was significant even if there was little visible difference. Harry had, upon inviting himself to be Severus’s assistant, also informed him that he had no home and had thus taken to sleeping on Severus’s sofa in the small flat Severus tried his best to afford the rent of. When Harry moved from the sofa into Severus’s bed, Severus wondered why he was allowing it. But the answer was really those green eyes, which turned his heart to molten gold even if they were constantly hidden by ugly glasses. Just as he would chip away at the cases stacked up against his clients (which more often than not were Harry accused of murder yet again), Harry had chipped away at the barriers surrounding his heart. A slow progression, where Severus had never once stopped his irritation with some of Harry’s antics. Harry had just added behaviours like kissing him into his repertoire, and Severus found that he was never quite as irritated as he might act. 

“I hope we can get an interesting client,” Harry said, stretching languidly. He said that most days, enjoying poking his nose into other people’s business where it most definitely didn’t belong. At least Severus had the excuse that he was literally a lawyer. Harry was just nosy. 

After Voldemort’s indictment, Severus had had to defend Harry from accusations of murder a further seven times. Voldemort had plenty of supporters, who all seemed quite eager to frame Harry in all sorts of bizarre ways. Severus was oddly relieved that they weren’t actually trying to murder him, though also despairing of having to repeatedly defend his assistant-turned-lover in court. It was a stressful enough job as it was, even without that added dimension.

“I hope we can get a paying client,” Severus grumbled. Harry liked to take on pitiful cases, with sad people he felt sorry for. Severus often dreamed of an easy case with a rich client. The last case had involved him defending a family that Harry had taken a shine to. He had successfully proved the Weasleys completely innocent of all charges. The Weasleys had then proved to him that they were incredibly poor. Every morning, in lieu of payment, one of the Weasley children would come round with a tray of freshly baked muffins or biscuits. The advantage of this was that it had come at a time when Severus was trying to decide between paying the rent and buying food so that they could eat. A better solution would have been the Weasleys paying him, so he could have bought his own food, but it was at least better than starving to death.

Harry smiled, as if he saw something good hidden deep inside Severus. Severus tried to ignore him, knowing that he should get up and face the day. First, however, he leant forward and kissed Harry. That would help get the day off to a good start. He’d find a client, someone who would pay him and satisfy Harry’s desire for interesting cases. He was building a reputation as a dedicated lawyer, with people still in awe of him winning the case against Voldemort that was now regarded as almost legendary. Some days it was alright to indulge the irritating assistant who had wormed his way so persistently into Severus’s life, making himself so much a part of it that he doubted he would remember what it was like to be without that constant, cheerful presence.


End file.
